“Roswell Slides”: What Will They Prove?

Well, my previous article on what have become know as the “Roswell Slides” has provoked a flurry of comments, via Facebook, Twitter, and email. Several of the writers took me to task for suggesting that even if the slides are the real deal – or are perceived to be so, even by highly credible individuals – it won’t make any difference to Ufology, or in relation to clearing up what happened at Roswell. I still stand by my position, and I’ll tell you why.

For the sake of argument and clarification, I’m going to play devil’s advocate and suggest that the slides just might be the real deal. Let’s say that careful study of the slides proves them to be of 1947 vintage. Let’s also say that there is a consensus amongst those qualified to comment, that the body is not a model, or a deformed human, but of an unknown life-form…an extraterrestrial.

That’s all well and good. But, if that’s all there is, and at that point the story stalls, and hits the proverbial brick wall, we have major problems – regardless of the positive opinions made in relation to the slides. Think I’m wrong? I’m not. Take, for example, the infamous film-footage taken in 1967 by a man named Roger Patterson that alleges to show a Bigfoot.

The Patterson film – as it’s known – has the support of a number of credible people, with credentials. But, even so, it hasn’t changed the world. Why? Because the film stands alone, that’s why. It has not been supported by the recovery of a dead or a living Bigfoot that can be compared to what the film shows. In other words, it remains an intriguing bit of film – and that’s all. The very same situation could occur in relation to the “Roswell Slides.”

Unless, or until, someone provides us with a real alien body that can be compared to the body in the slides, then the images will forever be the UFO equivalent of the Patterson film. Only hard physical evidence of what happened at Roswell – for comparison – will change things. But, I don’t think that will happen, and I’ll tell you why.

I am going to play devil’s advocate again and suggest that yes, maybe, aliens did crash at Roswell. But, if they did, what, precisely, did the U.S. military of 1947 actually recover? There are more than a few reports from old-timers from Roswell (both military and civilian) who talked about the recovery of unusual, small bodies, and the discovery and subsequent retrieval of a huge amount of strange, foil-like material.

If, however, you go back and carefully review the published material, you will see very few references to a craft – intact or even semi-intact – having been found on the Foster Ranch, Lincoln County, New Mexico, in the summer of 1947. There is no talk – even from the old-timers – of the military scooping up futuristic power-plants, weird landing gear, “engines,” etc. It’s all about the odd bodies and the equally odd “foil.”

Playing devil’s advocate for no less than a third time, let’s say that this is all the military found – and it’s all that the keepers of the secret have today: namely, four or five preserved bodies (in varying degrees of quality), and a mass of curious metal. If that’s so, it’s highly possible that only a very limited amount of work could be undertaken to try and figure out what had fallen into the hands of the Human Race – or, rather, into the hands of a small, elite, number of the Human Race.

Within the field of Ufology, there are numerous accounts of government agencies, the military, and private corporations “back-engineering” alien technology at places like Area 51. Check out the controversial story of Philip Corso, in his The Day After Roswell book, as a perfect example – or take a look at Independence Day. I sometimes wonder if all these tales of advanced, back-engineering programs were merely the concoctions of Cold War-era generals and strategists, doing their utmost to freak out the Russians and have them believe we had cracked the key to understanding alien technology.

But, what if, in reality, we haven’t made any advances – at all? Such a scenario is not in the slightest bit implausible. If all that was found really was just a bunch of bodies and a mass of foil, then it may be the case that nothing has been achieved beyond two things: (A) confirming that something intelligent, something that is not of the Human Race, has visited us; and (B) realizing that their technology is so bizarre that their vehicles appear to be comprised of strange foil and of absolutely nothing else.

Faced with that, what else could you do, say, or conclude? Certainly, you could periodically bring in expert individuals to examine the bodies. Likewise, you could have some of the finest minds on board to periodically study the so-called “memory-metal” found at the crash site. But, faced with so little material to work with, those overseeing the secret of Roswell (and I’m personally sure that someone is overseeing something!), may, by now, have reached the point where no more meaningful advances can be made.

In that sense, the Roswell evidence (the bodies and the memory-metal) may have gone from being a secret that was once dedicatedly studied to a secret that, today, is dedicatedly hidden. And that’s all. Skeptics often say that it’s absurd to believe that “the government” could hide the truth of Roswell. Their reasoning: thousands of scientists would be involved in the study of the recovered evidence, and some of them would blow the whistle.

Those same skeptics, however, are working from the mindset that the Roswell materials would have to be the subject of a massive, decades-long investigation. But what if that’s not the case? What if the truth is even stranger than that? Namely, that the keepers of the secret have so little to work with (just deteriorating corpses and a pile of foil), that what was, in the immediate aftermath of the crash, a bustling lab-type environment, is now the equivalent of a grim, mausoleum, where things are merely stored, rather than studied?

In that sense, it would be very easy to hide the evidence, simply because…no-one is doing anything with it. Which brings me back to the “Roswell Slides.” Maybe they are the real deal; I don’t know. But even if they are, we need more than just slides to make a solid case that aliens crashed in New Mexico in the summer of 1947. We need materials. We need body-parts.

Granted, if the materials are being studied and back-engineered here, there, and everywhere, then, yes, we would stand a chance of someone coming forward with at least something. If, however, the truth is as I suspect it could be – that the Roswell material is locked away because nothing has been learned from it and, now, no-one knows what to do with it, beyond hide it – our chances of vindicating things are slim to none.

And that’s not being pessimistic or defeatist. It’s being what more people in Ufology need to be: realistic.

Nick Redfern works full time as a writer, lecturer, and journalist. He writes about a wide range of unsolved mysteries, including Bigfoot, UFOs, the Loch Ness Monster, alien encounters, and government conspiracies. Nick has written 41 books, writes for Mysterious Universe and has appeared on numerous television shows on the The History Channel, National Geographic Channel and SyFy Channel.

But, what if, in reality, we haven’t made any advances – at all?
Such a scenario is not in the slightest bit implausible. If all that
was found really was just a bunch of bodies and a mass of foil, then it
may be the case that nothing has been achieved beyond two things: (A)
confirming that something intelligent, something that is not of the
Human Race, has visited us; and (B) realizing that their technology is
so bizarre that their vehicles appear to be comprised of strange foil
and of absolutely nothing else.

I notice here that you’re concentrating on the ‘hardware’ aspect of the story, Nick. Like you, I’m going to play devil’s advocate as well, just for the sake of argument: If they government came in possession of only bodies and foil after the Roswell crash, it’s possible that biologists might have been able to learn something about the aliens’ physiology and such, especially after we started to understand the basis of DNA and genetics.

True, biological stuff might not amount to the Air Force’s wet dream of learning how those damn saucers fly and defy gravity, but perhaps it still could be ‘weaponizable’ information –in terms of biological warfare and such. Maybe.

And let’s not be confused as a disagreement of your opinion. I in fact think you’re right on the money of equating the controversy of these slides with the P-G film –with half of cryptozoologists thinking it’s the real deal, while the other half (and 100% of the skeptics) claiming it’s just a guy in a gorilla suit.

But… entertaining these ideas force us to open ourselves to many different avenues and scenarios. For instance, if we accept the possibility that a craft of alien origin crashed over the New Mexico desert in 1947, we also have to imagine this might not have been an isolated incident –i.e. there might have been other crashes, at other dates and different locations, and ergo a chance to recuperate more material.

But maybe that ‘material’ is nothing more that a new iteration of what John Keel called ‘the artifact game’ in Operation Trojan Horse 😉

In the meantime, I admit it: I bought tickets to the damn thing next May. If anything, it will serve me as material to write something for MU 😛

Eric Hoffman

Why Mexico?

maya

Okay, lets just start with last part: “And? The entire military is based on a chain of command and clearance, that’s how it works – nothing unusual about that one.”

The President of the US is “Commander and Chief of the Military.” So the military is NEVER supposed to be above the President – that said, I don’t know if aliens are at area 51, or not, only that Area 51 was taken to court in an injure lawsuit, not for injury against military members but for injury, and even death of US civilians that worked at Area 51. Attorney Jonathan Turley was attorney for civilians which is basically how this attorney made a name for himself despite his loss in court, but whole concept of the US military is to protect US citizens, not injure them. And there have been military men, whom have come forward with claims of alien wreckage in Roswell. The “Bridge” was a generalization of how the military industrial complex works, as with Iraq, several ongoing documents of corruption, when substandard equipment and workmanship and money was pocketed instead of being used properly.

So you missed the point about the “bridge” since the Vietnam war was unwinnable, it was the military industrial complex that wanted the war to go on and on due to war profiteering.

And? The entire military is based on a chain of command and clearance, that’s how it works – nothing unusual about that one. Really, some people need to sit down and read the US Constitution. The President doesn’t NEED to go through the chain of command, BECAUSE he is the top of commanding office.

I’m not even mess with rest because all of your comments are equally ignorant.

John

And that’s all. Skeptics often say that it’s absurd to believe that “the government” could hide the truth of Roswell. Their reasoning: thousands of scientists would be involved in the study of the recovered evidence, and some of them would blow the whistle.
I was until recently of a similar mindset regarding conspiracy theories, it was to me “This is absolute bullshit, how could this be kept a secret when there’d have to be so many in the loop that someone if not many would spill the beans”
But just recently it struck me how wrong I was and proving me wrong was the name of one man, Edward Snowden, I realized that the NSA would have thousands if not tens of thousands of employees and while obviously not all would have access to Top Secret information if only a small percentage did it would amount to a considerable number of employees with the rest having varying levels of security clearance and as far as I’m aware until Snowden went public the secrets the NSA possesses remained exactly that, secret. So I’ll never again dismiss a conspiracy theory on the grounds of too many people would be in the know